In the detergent industry enzymes have for more than 30 years been implemented in washing formulations. Enzymes used in such formulations comprise proteases, lipases, amylases, cellulases, as well as other enzymes, or mixtures thereof. Commercially the most important enzymes are proteases.
An increasing number of commercially used proteases are protein engineered variants or naturally occurring wild type proteases, e.g., RELASE®, ALCALASE®, SAVINASE®, PRIMASE®, EVERLASE®, ESPERASE®, OVOZYME®, CORONOASE, POLARZYME® and KANNASE® (Novozymes A/S), MAXATASE™, MAXACAL™, MAXAPE™, PROPERASE™, PURAFECT™, PURAFECT OXP™, FN2™, FN3™, FN4™ and PURAFECT PRIME™ (Genencor International, Inc.), BLAP X and BLAP S (Henkel). Further, a number of protease variants are described in the art. A list of prior art protease variants is given in WO 99/27082.
However, even though a large number of useful protease variants have been described, there is still a need for new improved proteases or protease variants for a number of industrial uses such as laundry or hard surface cleaning. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide improved subtilase variants for such purposes.